Author Archives: ajsartjournal

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About ajsartjournal

This blog is to share my adventures in art journaling. It's a journey of discovery and you are more than welcome to join me. A little bit about me … I’m English and live on the Isle of Wight which is off the south coast of England. I am retired and I’m married to the love of my life. We have been together as a couple since 1970 but only got married in 2007. before that we were just getting to know each other 🙂 We have had an amazing life together, travelled to distant parts of the world and lived life to the full. Sometimes when we look back at our life together we say “Wow! did we really do all that stuff?!” My husband has been very unwell for the past 10 years and I am his full time unpaid carer now. When he was younger he worked as an advocate supporting people who were detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act. He was also a musician and DJ. He is still interested in music and on good days our house is still filled with music. Me, I’m much more of a visual person, I love photography and images and now, of course, I love art journalling and being creative. We never had children, but we are now the proud parents to two beautiful cats called Bill & Jack (after Bill Burroughs and Jack Kerouac). They are getting old now and need more care and attention. Want to know anything else? Just ask 🙂 Big love AJ

Learning the art of patience.

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Patience is not simply the ability to wait – it’s how we behave while we’re waiting.

Joyce Meyer

Cosmic mapsHello friends

I hope all is good with you.

Today didn’t go exactly as I had prepared for.  I had an appointment with a consultant at the hospital and I was expecting to be told the specifics of my cancer diagnosis and, more importantly for me, the treatment plan, but it didn’t work out like that.

The results of the CT scan I had on Friday were not available and the blood samples I had taken last week now have to be sent to another hospital for more rigorous testing. This means that my case will not be discussed at the Multi-Disciplinary team meeting tomorrow so no treatment plan will be drawn up this week.  IF everything can be sorted out by Friday of this week then I can be discussed as the MDT meeting next Tuesday so I now have an appointment to see the consultant again on Wednesday 7 October.

I have to be honest I felt a bit let down.  I do understand that the treatment has to be specific to the type and stage of my cancer and a few more days delay won’t affect the outcome, but I, of course, am anxious to get this show on the road and to start fighting…

Still there is good news – I am still feeling well and the tumour doesn’t feel quite so uncomfortable now.  On top of that over the past few days I have become an expert in making fruit and veg smoothies and in cooking up batches of soup.  This probably doesn’t sound a big deal to you but it’s a whole new world to me.

Anyway it’s all out of my hands so I am just going to have to be patient for a while longer.

The image above is from a little book I have been working on that I am calling The Little Book of Cosmic Maps.

See you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2014 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Healing takes Courage

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Healing takes courage

 

Hello friends I hope you are all well and happy.

A few days ago my life got turned completely upside down when a very kind man with a concerned look on his face gently put a hand on my shoulder, looked into my eyes and said “I’m sorry but you have cancer”.   He said lots of other things too, he explained a lot and I understood every word he said but somehow I couldn’t take any of it in.  I just wasn’t expecting him to say that, after I heard the word  cancer my mind just went into freefall and I couldn’t even think what questions to ask.

Physically I feel fine apart from a problem in my mouth.  I thought I had an abscess under one of my teeth so I went to the dentist and was put on antibiotics. They didn’t work and the swelling got bigger.  All in all I took four lots of antibiotics and it just got bigger although strangely it just felt uncomfortable and not painful.  The antibiotics made me feel awful too.  Finally I was referred to the hospital and my first appointment was for last Wednesday, but I panicked a bit and by going to A&E and asking them to check it I managed to get the appointment brought forward by a week.  The doctor I saw was very reassuring he said “it looks quite alarming but I don’t think it’s cancer”.  He did take a biopsy, just to make sure, and told me to come back on Wednesday of this week when he hoped he would have the results.

So I had a relatively stress-free week, I thought I would need surgery to have the lump removed and I knew I would lose several teeth when that was done, but afterwards I’d be getting back to normal and eventually wearing dentures. I’d get used to that…

So this Wednesday when T and I went back to the hospital we were fairly upbeat and positive and I was hoping to find out when the surgery could be done.  Then this Exocet missile came out of no-where and everything changed.   I have large b cell lymphoma and that has caused the tumour in my mouth.  I had blood tests last Thursday and I am having a CT Scan next Friday because it’s likely I have the cancer in other parts of my body too and they need to know the full extent before deciding on the course of treatment. On the following Monday I am seeing someone in the haematology department who will tell me the score.  And so my journey begins…

We are both trying to be positive and to prepare ourselves for whatever happens next, but our emotions are all over the place at the moment.

So, if you could send some love and hugs and positive energy my way I’d be ever so grateful.

Big love AJ 🙂

 

PS the image above is from a new journal I have started.

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2014 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Summer

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Summer

Hello friends

I hope you are all well and happy, everything is good here 🙂

This is a page in my mixed media, altered book journal.  Ages ago we bought some garlic at the Garlic Farm and it came in this fantastic brown paper bag printed with a butterfly and lots of words relating to garlic, so I used that as one layer, then there was lots of paint, stamping and stencilling.  The words are just things I wrote down in my note book one lunchtime when I went and sat outside and soaked up the glorious weather.  Later I transferred them to my journal.

I can’t believe what a wonderful summer we are having, it seems like we’ve had weeks and weeks of summer, I LOVE it.

The only trouble is I am so busy I’ve not really had time to enjoy it as much as I’d like, but even when I’m stuck inside working it’s still good to look outside and see the sunshine so I’m not complaining.

Sorry it’s a short post tonight because I need to start ticking some more things off my ‘To Do’ list before it starts stressing me out.

Take care of yourselves and I’ll be back soon(ish)

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2014 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Can’t see the wood for the trees

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Enchanted Trees 1

 

Hello friends!

I hope life is being good to you, here we are having glorious summer weather and I’m loving it.  It’s been warm and sunny for weeks now, sometimes actually too hot for some people but not for me.  Hot days just remind me of Sunny Tobago and that’s one of my favourite places, it’s hot there all the time, all year round and I think the secret is to not be rushing about.  “Just chill mon, ev’ry t’ing is cool” besides it’s nice to be able to spend time outside when I get up in the morning and in the evenings.

I collected my two paintings from the Open exhibition at the library at the weekend so I thought I’d share them with you.  I don’t know what, if anything, anyone thought of them as the only comments I got were from Mum and Dad and they are biased towards their daughter.  I think I probably went a bit (a bit!) overboard with the colours but I do LOVE neon.  They both measure 16″ by 20″.

So, up there is the first one and below is the second one.

Enchanted Trees 2

 

I hope you are having a good summer.

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2014 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

The love you make

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The Love you Make

Hello friends

I hope all is well with you.

The Arts Festival is over now for another year and it was a great success, I really enjoyed it this year.  The artwork, created by a local artist and local youth groups was outstanding and the opening concert was very moving.  All week there was stuff going on.  A really great effort by the team.

Since then I finished a journal I started over a year ago and the image above is the back cover.  It started out it’s life as a child’s board book that I picked up in a charity shop for a few pence.  I peeled off the plastic covering from all the pages, gave them a coat of gesso, then coloured them, added collage and penwork.  The book had a pocket in the back cover but I sealed it up completely and just left the flap.

I’ve covered the outside of this journal with strips of clear packing tape so, hopefully, the collage elements won’t lift.  You can see where the tape overlaps and I realise that might bother a lot of people, but it doesn’t bother me, the tape gives the cover a high gloss finish that I like.

Here is what’s under the flap.

The secret under the flap

 

And here is the finished journal.  I started this journal over a year ago in Teesha Moore and Jane Davenport’s Mermaid Circus 1 online workshop, but I only did one page and the rest of it has been completed as part of Teesha’s Artstronauts Club.  There are only 12 pages in total including the front and back covers, but I usually have a number of different projects on the go at the same time so that’s why it takes so long to complete anything.  I always get a great sense of achievement when a journal is finished.

Finsiehd journal

Have a good week and I’ll see you soon (ish).

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2014 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Be a realist!

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Be a Realist!

Hello friends!

I hope all is good with you.

So the reality is I’ve become a ‘not very good blogger’ but that’s just how it is at the moment and I’ve got to stop letting it worry me.

The Ryde Arts Festival is now well under way and got off to a spectacular start on Friday evening with the opening of the Landmark Trees project and a concert of a piece of music composed (by two young composers) especially for the event.  It was fantastic!

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERAWhat was particularly good about it was that the hangings for the Landmark Trees were made by a local artist working with four different youth groups.  It took them about 3 months to paint them.

The concert ‘Seasons for a Soldier’ was played by the local Symphony Orchestra but also included an adult choir, a youth choir and the marching band of the local Sea Cadets.

The whole piece is about the seasons of 1914 – from optimistic Spring through to desolate Winter, reflecting on what it must have been like for all the young men who, in the autumn and winter of 1914 volunteered to fight for their country.  There are ribbons on all the trees outside with the names of the men from the town who lost their lives in WW1.

I’ve been volunteering over the weekend: on Friday and Saturday evening at events in the old church and this morning just sitting and welcoming the visitors who came in to see the installation and listen to a recording of the music.  (Actually I did a bit of art too while I was there) 🙂  Also yesterday afternoon I spent several hours updating the Ryde Arts Festival website.

You can’t see it in the picture (because people are sitting over it) but on the floor in big white lettering are the famous words from a Rupert Brooke poem “…That there’s some corner of a foreign field. That is for ever England”.  The chairs are just put out if there is a concert, but during the daytime people walk into a vast empty space with these wonderful tree hangings, the line of poetry on the floor and the music playing.  I think it’s really impressive and I’m proud to play a small part in the annual Arts Festival.

The spread above is in my Altered Book Journal.  I was a bit surprised in how it turned out, but that’s the way the pages wanted to be so who am I to argue?

I don’t know anything about Anwar Sadat other than he was the President of Egypt from 1970.  I’m guessing like most politicians he had good points and bad.  He took his country to war with Israel but he also entered into Peace Talks with Israel which culminated in a Peace Treaty being signed.  He and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On 6 October 1981 President Sadat was assassinated during the annual victory parade held in Cairo.

Anyway I really like the quote and I needed something with an Egyptian flavour to compliment the images (which came from a picture I bought in a charity shop yesterday).

Until the next time, have fun

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

 

 

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2014 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Getting Away With It

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Getting Away With It

Hello friends

Thank you for your kind comments after my last post.  To be honest I am still feeling conflicted about the whole blog thing and I need to give it some thought.

In the meantime I have finished the front cover of my board book.  Just got the back cover to do now, but that could take a few weeks at current rate of progress.  I sealed the collage with clear packing tape, so it has a gloss finish.  You can see the lines where the tape overlaps, but I don’t mind that.

I hope you are keeping well and happy.  I’m really enjoying the sunshine and long hours of daylight at the moment.

See you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2014 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Happy Birthday Blog!

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Mandala book coverHello friends!

It’s been a while so I hope all is good with you.

According to WordPress it’s 3 years ago today that I started this blog, so Happy Birthday Blog!  Unfortunately recently I’ve been neglecting things and here we are in the middle of June and this is my first post of the month.  What happened?  I used to post regularly, often 2 posts a week, but now there are long gaps.

Working on the kitchen refurb was the start of the upset of the routine and finding the time is always a problem, but it’s more than that.  I’ve been wondering what it’s all about? Why am I putting all this stuff out there? I always found time in the past so what’s the problem now? Also there is a bit of guilt, people come along here and leave lovely comments and I read them and have every intention of replying, visiting their blogs and being supportive – every intention but I’m not always successful with my intentions.  So does that make me a bad blogger? I’m not asking for or expecting anyone to give me any answers but these are just some of the thoughts I’ve been having and I’m still confused about it…

Anyway, I’ve still found time to be creative – I’ve been working on a couple of paintings, on several journals and I managed to finish my second Mandala book, the images above and below are the front and back cover of the book.

Take good care of yourselves, until the next time

Big love

AJ 🙂

Back cover

 

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2014 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

It’s finished!

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Global Psychedelic Soundsystem

 

Hello friends!

I hope you are all well and happy.

Here I am again after a long absence, I’ve just been busier then usual and had no time for blogging and little time for art in the past few weeks.

The page above is in my Amazing 16 page Journal. T asked me if I could make a flyer for his Global Psychedelic Soundsystem and here it is.  There will be another part to this page but it’s not finished yet.

However the kitchen is now finally finished – phew!  And as promised here are some before and photos:

Looking from dining room to end of kitchenBEFORE – Looking from dining room to end of kitchen – AFTER

Looking from back door to dining room - AFTER

BEFORE    –   Looking from back door to dining room    –    AFTER

It probably doesn’t look a lot different but there is more space to move about in now and much more work-surface and storage space.  The style is more in fitting with the age of the house AND, although T is quite scared of colour and always wants everything painted white, I did manage to get a teal coloured wall and multi-coloured tiles, so it looks much brighter now.

The pink sign above the arch to the dining room says ‘MIND YOUR HEAD’ as it is lower than normal door height.  It’s fine for T and Me as we are both short and can walk through without ducking, but we do have some taller friends and we don’t want anyone knocking themselves out when they visit.

This weekend has been busy Ryde Social Heritage Group hosted two Open Days at Ryde Cemetery, where we had exhibitions, guided walks and talks and a ‘Meet the Residents’ event.  It all looked fantastic and was a great success, fortunately the sun shone on both days and we had lots of visitors.  It took a lot of hard work by the team to get it all together – researching, writing up display sheets, collecting items to display and sorting out costumes, but it was definitely worthwhile.  Today is a bank holiday in the UK so I’ve just been having a quiet day resting, the weather has been wet and miserable today but that’s OK as I was still in my PJs up until 3pm.

That’s all for now folks, I have a stack of ironing to do before work tomorrow and various other bits to sort out.

Have a great week and hopefully I’ll be back soon.

Big love

AJ 🙂

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2014 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 

 

 

Universal Force

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Universal Force

Hello friends!

Another Sunday and that’s another week flown by!  Everything here is fine. T is recovering well but his doctor is insisting he takes another week off work, just to be on the safe side.

Tomorrow is a Bank Holiday anyway so we are both off work and we will probably try to get a bit more of the tiling done.  In a day it’s unlikely that we will finish it but it will be good to move it on even if it’s only a little bit.

I had a busy week, I had to go to a team meeting on Monday which took up all day and the rest of the week was spent catching up.

On Thursday I began to feel unwell at work and when I woke up on Friday I had a sore throat and aches all over my body.  I phoned in sick and spent the whole day in my PJs and most of the time in bed although I did get up several times for short periods.  I felt pretty rough all day though which was a bit worrying as on Saturday I had to make an early start and, with my friend, take our exhibition boards to a one day conference of the IW Family History Society.

Fortunately I did feel better when I woke up on Saturday and I dosed myself up with medicine before I left home at 07:30.  We had a good but tiring day.  Our exhibit was one of many local history displays and it was good to meet up with old friends and chat and meet new people.  Some people gave us information and others we were able to help. There were a number of talks throughout the day at the conference but sadly we didn’t get to hear them as we were ‘on duty’.  We were both really tired when we finally got home at about 7pm.

Today I’m feeling better again so I suppose I only had what is known as a ’24hr bug’, phew!

The page above is in my 16-page journal, I like this page, it’s zingy and fun!

A good friend of ours is currently in Nepal at Boudhanath Stupa, it’s a very wonderful and powerful place.  T and I went there way back in the 1970s. It’s pretty special to know that a good friend is there right now.

Boudhanath Stupa, Nepal

Public Domain Image of Boudhanath Stupa.

Our friend is doing 108 circuits of this magical place and performing a healing ceremony at a given time tomorrow.  All I have to do is be in a quiet place, relax and focus on my heart for 15 minutes.  I know, this could sound really crazy, but “There is force in the universe, which, if we permit it, will flow through us and produce miraculous results”, so said Mr Gandhi. 🙂

Have a great week.

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2014 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.